A lot of Internet Tough Guys don't understand that if you're respectful and kind to the police, they'll more often than not go on their way without any type of escalation. Making their life difficult by refusing to talk to them at all or show any basic respect might work OK a few times, but really you're just going to cause problems. A better response than just repeating "Am I being detained?" is to filter your words carefully against some basic legal knowledge. Not necessarily foolproof, but most likely a better outcome than acting like a dick, as long as you're reasonably intelligent.
One day, in the first week of March, perhaps the 2nd or 3rd, I had driven my kids to school in the morning. While on the way out, I observed a cop issuing some sort of traffic citation to another parent on their way in. This was causing a major delay for hundreds of cars, due to this guy blocking the only way in and out with two stationary vehicles, one being the typical suburban full-time-parent kid-chauffeuring battle-tank SUV.
I may have allowed an annoyed look to appear on my face.
Seconds later, this same guy was pulling me over. The reason? My vehicle stickers expire February 28th. I renewed online late in the month (the shortest month, naturally), and the replacement stickers had not yet arrived in the mail. Fortunately for me, I had the printed receipt of my renewal transaction on the front passenger seat of my car. (The stickers arrived in the mail later that day.)
While walking away, the guy tells me, "Next time don't wait until the last minute to renew." ~Dude. I'm sorry that my timely production of exculpatory evidence precluded you from ratcheting one tick closer to your ticket quota.~ If you're going to be overzealous in enforcing the revenue laws, I don't need to hear any complaints about me paying the full amount and on time.
Next time, and all subsequent times, I will try the "not making your job easier" approach. You can't treat people like moustache-twirling villains half the time, and soulless cash machines the other half, and still expect them to respect you. I know he had an in-car computer that showed him my current registration and insurance status. He probably pulled me over because I gave him a dirty look for screwing up car line, and he wanted to be an extra-big dick about it.
The policing for profit has to stop. Whether its from dubious municipal court fines and fees or War on Drugs grants, the distorted flow of money is rewriting the relationship between police and public. The public is simultaneously employer to and customer of the police. That means that the cop has the burden of being professional and respectful at all times, even in the face of horrendous rudeness.
When a waiter or delivery driver gets stiffed on a tip, they suck it up, maybe post a pic to social media, and move on. When a cop gets frowned at, they swagger up, solicit some respeck for their authoritah, and maybe hurt someone while the cameras are inexplicably turned off. It should not matter whether or not the public gives or withholds respect. Those cops are on the clock and serving customers. If those customers are curt with front-line employees, perhaps it is because the company as a whole has been behaving as badly as AT&T or Comcast.
Just as you may get better results being calm and polite with your customer service rep while on the phone with those companies, you still might get a freakin' Ernestine, not caring about you, because the company is a [local] monopoly and it doesn't have to. In that case, you're better off sticking to your own script and recording everything.
>In that case, you're better off sticking to your own script and recording everything.
I'm not really sure how you came to this conclusion. You are correct about many things here, but the solution is not to become defiant; that will only result in, at a minimum, more hassle for you, like the officer writing an invalid citation anyway because he can, thus forcing you to either pay or waste an afternoon at traffic court to try to get it thrown out.
Some people are naturally more stubborn than others. I probably came to that conclusion due to my exceptionally mule-headed ancestry.
As a result, when I perceive that someone is working against my own interests, I will do anything within the bounds of my own ethics to trip them up, even to my own detriment. I want to waste lots of nights and weekends mailing documents in to traffic court, to try to get that revenue-generating municipal summons turned into a money-losing jury trial, with plenty of motions and discovery and appeals.
"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." --H.D. Thoreau
Under a government which funds itself by forcing citizens to pay more in order to be hassled less, choosing to accept the inconvenience might be considered an altruistic act....[0] But in my case, it would be purely for spite. From Hell's heart, I stab at thee, Captain Kirk.
If you want to let those bastards get away with their scam just because you can't stand to have a little manure tossed at you, go right ahead. I hope you enjoy smelling nice and not having any parts of your face broken when you go out with your fancy respectable folk.
The cops say "you can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride." Well, Cave Johnson says, "I'm going to burn life's house down, with the lemons!" (He says what we're all thinking.) If you want to take me on a ride, don't forget that you'll have to drive the whole way. If you're intentionally inconveniencing me, as as informal punishment, remember this: "I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." --G.B. Shaw.
[0] Poe's Law note: this is the inflection point between mostly-sincere and mostly-insincere. Determining which is which is left as an exercise for the reader.
This works fine with most non-police, but please realize that police have license to kill. Even if your shooting is unjustified, the bias is going to favor the police officer, and there are many things in the justice system that work in their favor, not the least of which being that many of their colleagues, associates, and friends will be responsible for their prosecution.
If a normal person shot you, they'd be arrested that night. For police, if they're ever arrested, it will probably many months later, after someone in the organization has decided that they don't like the officer involved in the shooting anyway--err, I mean, after Internal Affairs completes the investigation.
If you really believe that police--paid employees of the state--can murder people with impunity, why haven't you joined the rebellion yet? How many more straws would it take to break your back? Do you really want to live in a country where you believe you can be capriciously and arbitrarily murdered by the government without consequence?
